Page 8A
OFF PAGE ONE
East Oregonian
Friday, June 30, 2017
POOL: Grand opening is at 11 a.m. this Saturday LAND: Size of the state’s
Continued from 1A
Michael said many of
the companies have also
purchased corporate pack-
ages that give memberships
to their employees at a bulk
discount. Since Blue Moun-
tain Community College’s
pool is closing in Pendleton
and Hermiston’s Columbia
Court Club has not re-opened
after a fire in June 2016, there
has been particular interest in
the center’s indoor pool.
“I think it’s not just
the local community (that
will use it),” Michael said.
“We’ve had a lot of questions
from Hermiston and even
Pendleton.”
The pool area features a
four-lane swimming pool
that goes to 10 feet in the
deep end, connected to a
shorter recreational pool
and a round vortex pool that
creates a whirlpool effect.
There is also a large water
slide and a smaller, warmer
therapy pool. A multi-use
room and patio off the pool
are both available for parties.
The center’s 27-foot
climbing wall features 500
different handholds spread
out to create multiple routes
to the top. Prag said someone
with expertise in climbing
walls came out and helped
arrange the routes to provide
a challenge for climbers at
various skill levels.
“We will keep changing
these as people get bored,”
she said.
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
A 27-foot climbing wall has many different levels of
difficulty for climbers to choose from.
holdings complicates the
sale of rangelands
Continued from 1A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
The grand opening will be held this Saturday for the
Boardman Pool and Recreation Center.
A multi-court gym will
be available for basketball
and volleyball games, and
a room with floor-to-ceiling
windows holds exercise
machines and weights. Once
the landscaping outside is
finished it will include a
walking path around the
center. Prag said the district
has put together a schedule
of swim lessons and fitness
classes and is looking for
more instructors to expand
those offerings.
After the center’s grand
opening from 11 a.m. to 2
p.m. this Saturday, it will
be open 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Monday through Friday, 9
a.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturdays
and noon to 7 p.m. on
Sundays. Daily admission
will be $4 for youth who live
in th Boardman Parks and
Recreation District ages 4 to
18 and $5 for out-of-district
youth, $6 for in-district adults
and $7.50 for out-of-district,
and $4.50 for in-district
seniors over 64 and $5.50
for out-of-district seniors.
Monthly and yearly passes
are also available for families
and individuals, including
$480 a year for adults living
in the Boardman district.
For an extra $50 adults can
access the gymnasium and
cardio room 24 hours a day.
For more information call
541-616-1050.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
SAFETY: Fireworks sales are outpacing last year’s
Continued from 1A
Washington state also
prohibits the sale, possession
and use of firecrackers, bottle
rockets and sky rockets and
missiles, according to the
state fire marshal’s office.
However, Oregon’s northern
neighbor allows Roman
Candles and reloadable
mortars, both of which
explode in the air.
And some legal fireworks
are easy to alter into illegal.
Piccolo Petes, which Satter-
white said are top sellers,
emit golden sparks and a
piercing whistle. But they
also can be changed into a
loud explosive.
Pendleton Police Chief
Stuart Roberts said his
department aims to educate
people first about fireworks
but each year issues two
or three citations and seize
materials for Oregon State
Police to destroy. Hermiston
Police Chief Jason Edmiston
said his officers enforce the
laws on the books and give
warnings, citations, and seize
illegal fireworks.
“We increase our staffing
every Fourth of July due to the
large event at Butte Park and
with the inevitable increase in
calls for service,” Edmiston
said, and this holiday two
officers will work six-hour
overtime shifts.
Pendleton could see an
uptick in fireworks-related
action. Satterwhite said sales
are outpacing last year, and
they tend to increase through
the Fourth. And with the
Pendleton Eagles canceling
the community fireworks
show, more residents could
be putting on shows of their
own.
Oregon in 2016 had
192 fireworks-related fires
resulting in more than
$519,000 in property damage,
according to the state fire
marshal’s office, and from
2012 through 2016 there
were 944 fireworks-related
fires in Oregon resulting in
one death and more than $2.1
million in property damage.
Bohm said locals can
mitigate the danger from
fireworks. Adults — not
children — should set them
off on concrete, pavement or
at least green grass, he said,
and have a water bucket or
hose at the ready. He also
said to keep fireworks at least
25 feet from bushes or brush.
Arborvitae, he said, tend to
go up like kindling.
People who cause damage
with fireworks are liable
and can pay for the cost of
fighting a fire. Bohm said that
can run $600-$900 an hour.
Local temperatures are
on the rise this weekend,
according to the National
Weather Service, and there is
no hint of rain. Bohm urged
everyone to be safe and
careful with fireworks this
Fourth of July.
“It’s super dry out there,”
he said. “It only takes a spark
or two.”
———
Contact Phil Wright at
pwright@eastoregonian.com
or 541-966-0833.
realized in revenues.
The state holds a
variety of trust lands,
including forests, mineral
resources and agricultural
land. They’re required to
generate revenue for the
Common School Fund, an
endowment for public K-12
education. Rangeland is the
largest trust land segment.
Environmental regula-
tions have restricted logging
on state forests, causing the
forests to operate at a loss.
So the state land board —
which oversees state trust
lands — has been consid-
ering selling the Elliott, an
82,500-acre swath of forest
near the southwestern
Oregon coast.
The possible sale of
the Elliott galvanized
the state’s environmental
activists, though, who
spoke of the state’s duty to
protect public lands from
privatization, turning the
debate political in heav-
ily-Democratic
Oregon.
In May, the board — the
governor, secretary of state
and treasurer — decided to
pull out of its planned sale
to a timber company.
By contrast, the state’s
rangelands, concentrated
mostly in southeastern
Oregon, haven’t received
much public attention.
Returns from the range-
land have varied.
Between 2013 and 2015,
each acre of rangeland
generated an average profit
of only four cents. That
means that rangelands did
generate positive net reve-
nues some years, but the
margin is thin. The state’s
trust agricultural land had
an average per-acre profit
of $18.84 in that period.
Much of last year’s
losses were due to the
costs of fighting wildfires.
Fires cost the department
$1.8 million in 2016,
Department of State Lands
Director Jim Paul said.
The risks that trust
rangeland pose to the
Common School Fund are
not new. In the early aughts,
the problem caught the
attention of Oregon’s chief
public auditor.
Back in 2004, after
finding that state rangelands
had lost money as far back
as 1987, an audit by the
Oregon Secretary of State’s
Office made three main
recommendations: that the
state lands department sell
some or all of the rangeland
in a competitive bidding
process, exchange it for a
“better performing asset,”
or get market rates for
leases.
More than 10 years
later, though, the state’s
rangeland holdings remain
relatively intact. In 2004,
the state held 613,000 acres
of trust rangeland. In 2016,
it held 596,784 acres.
The department says the
size of its holdings compli-
cates the sale of rangelands.
Putting a large share of it on
the market could depress
prices, meaning that sales
have to be spread out over
time.
And the state’s trust
forests, such as the Elliott,
which are consistently
losing more money more
quickly, have presented a
more immediate problem,
Paul said.
“The bigger picture is
just around the issue of
prioritization and where
do we need to focus now,
versus which things are sort
of in process and are going
to take longer,” Paul said.
He said you can look at
the state’s trust lands like an
investment portfolio.
“An individual one-year
loss or one portion of
the fund that’s doing
poorly isn’t necessarily
the trigger,” Paul said.
“It’s, are you tending to
the whole and getting the
performance that a prudent
investor would with that
kind of asset?”
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